PG | 1h 37min | Science Fiction, Thriller | 1973
Before he became a sci-fi writer, Harry Harrison was an illustrator for sci-fi comics. His most famous novel, “Make Room! Make Room!” (1966), was so visually compelling that filmmaker Richard Fleischer adapted it into the dystopian thriller, “Soylent Green” (1973), based on Stanley R. Greenberg’s screenplay.
Fittingly, Fleischer as director, his cinematographer Richard H. Kline, editor Samuel E. Beetley, and score composer Fred Myrow open their movie with an arresting, comic-book-like montage. It illustrates mankind’s all-too-hurried transition from a languid, 19th-century agrarian economy to a whirling 20th-century industrial economy.
First, soft, mild music accompanies a slow succession of images of hillocks, boats, and horse-drawn vehicles; we see only a handful of people: children and adults sitting, standing, and indulging in leisurely activities (fishing, farming, and the like)….